


Finding Zephyr

by apollonious



Category: How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Chief Hiccup Horrendous Haddock III, Dad Hiccup, Domestic Fluff, Family Fluff, Gen, New Berk (How to Train Your Dragon), Pregnant Astrid Hofferson, Slice of Life, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, dadcup, saturday is dragon day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-25 03:02:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,519
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22008919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apollonious/pseuds/apollonious
Summary: When Zephyr vanishes from New Berk just before the birth of her little brother, it falls to Hiccup to find her and bring her back.
Comments: 8
Kudos: 61





	Finding Zephyr

“Hiccup, have you seen Zephyr?”

The call cuts through the quiet of the dusk. Hiccup looks up from the book he’s writing in, logging the day’s events, to see Astrid standing in the doorway leading out onto the balcony where he sits. She’s wiping her hands on the apron that covers her rounded belly.

“She’s not out here,” he says. “Why?”

“She must have slipped out while I was doing the washing-up after dinner,” Astrid says. “She’s not in her room either.”

Carefully, Hiccup balances the book on the arm of his chair, marking his page with his pencil. He stands and goes to his wife. “I’m sure she’s fine,” he says. “What trouble could she get up to in the village?”

“Plenty of trouble. And Hiccup, she’s three. What if she wanders out of the village? She could get lost, she could—”

“Fall off the island?” 

“Don’t tease,” Astrid says irritably. 

“I’ll go find her,” Hiccup says.

“I’m coming too,” she says at once.

“No.” Almost by accident, some of his Chief-voice goes into the word. He winces. “Sorry. One of us should stay here in case she comes back, and I nominate the one who’s eight months pregnant. Sit down for a bit. You should get off your feet.” Before she can object, he gives her a swift kiss and disappears into the house.

The streets of the village are mostly empty, but several people hail him as he walks past. He goes to Valka’s house first, as if Zephyr has gone anywhere in the village, it would be there. She only shakes her head. “She’s not here, Hiccup. Should I come with you?”

“No, I’ll find her,” Hiccup says. “Don’t worry about it, Mom.”

“Be safe,” she says, and then he is off again.

He walks out of the village and along the section of the island’s edge closest to New Berk, what would be the coastline if they were at sea level. He does not see his daughter or any sign of her and hears no cry for help in her tiny, high voice.

Despite his teasing, the possibility had worried him too.

He slowly walks back toward town, letting his feet lead him where they will. He wanders for what feels like hours, the darkness falling around him, and sees more of the island than he has since before Zephyr was born. 

He ends up on the lakeshore where, years ago now, he tried to coach Toothless through the wooing of the Light Fury. Despite its relative vicinity to New Berk, it has remained miraculously untouched even after all this time. He can still see the tree the Light Fury once hung from, though it has fallen onto the sand now—and there, in its shadow, he can see a tiny form lying on the ground. 

“Zephyr!” he shouts, unable to keep the frantic edge of panic out of his voice as he slides down the embankment onto the beach and starts running toward her. He doesn’t know how she found this place—he’s never told her about it or brought her here. That doesn’t matter, though, because as he dashes toward her, she’s sitting up and looking around at him and rubbing her eyes. Her hair, too short still for proper braids, is up in tiny pigtails that have been mussed slightly in her sleep. 

“Daddy?” she manages to get out before he falls to his knees in front of her and grabs her, pulling her into a too-tight hug. “Daddy?” she says again after a minute, and he slowly relaxes his hold, setting her gently on her feet and dragging the back of his hand across his eyes.

“What are you doing out here?” he asks, willing his voice to be quiet and gentle, though the edge of desperation is still there.

She doesn’t answer, still sleepy. Looking around, Hiccup sees more detail: the small pack he made for her, a blanket she must have wrapped around herself, but which had fallen off as she’d slept. His stomach sinks at the sight of a blackened patch of sand, on which there are several small, charred branches. She must have taken one of his spare flint-steels; he’d have to find a better hiding spot for them.

“You came out here to camp?” Hiccup asks incredulously. “By yourself? Zephyr, you can’t—”

She looks up at him, her eyes defiant and the set of her chin sullen. She hates being told she can’t do something. 

“You need to be careful,” he amends. “It’s not safe to set fires, especially in the house or around trees.”

“I know that,” she snaps. “I was careful.”

And she was. There’s nothing that could start a fire that would have been within the flames’ reach.

He sighs. “Why are you out here by yourself, Zephyr?”

She looks away, swallowing hard. 

“Hey.” Hiccup pokes her gently in the stomach. “Answer the question.”

She sighs. “I wanted to prove I was ind’pendent.”

He looks around at her campsite again. “Do you think I could ever doubt that?” She meets his eyes. “But sweetie, you don’t need to be this kind of independent yet. If there was an animal or something, I wouldn’t be able to protect you.”

“You’re here now,” Zephyr says.

“Only because your mother was worried and I walked across half the island to find you.”

“Mommy was worried?”

He nods. “Probably still is, unless she’s fallen asleep.” Hiccup hopes she’s been able to fall asleep. She needs the rest. 

Zephyr’s lip is quivering. “I’m sorry, Daddy.” Any lingering anger he’d felt melts away. 

“Hey, now.” He sits and pulls her into his lap. “There’s no need to be upset.” She is shivering slightly, and she leans into him.

“Do we have to go back?” she asks. 

“Eventually. But we can stay out here for a little bit longer.” She snuggles closer to him, and he decides to press the issue. “Why do you feel like you have to show you’re so independent all of a sudden?”

She sighs.

“Zephyr?”

“I have to be a good big sister,” she says.

_There it is._

“What do you mean?” he asks. 

“When the baby comes. I have to be a good big sister and take care of him. How am I supposed to take care of him if I can’t take care of myself?”

“You don’t have to take care of him like this,” Hiccup says. “Not to make sure he survives. That’s my job. And your mother’s.”

“But Spitlout says I have to.”

“Well, Spitlout doesn’t know anything about being a big sister.”

“I thought your job was being the chief,” Zephyr points out reasonably. 

“It is,” Hiccup says. “But it’s being a dad, too. It’s being your dad.”

They are quiet for a few moments—for Zephyr, it must feel like an eternity—before she asks, “Can we still go chiefing after the baby is born?”

“Of course we can still go chiefing,” he says, startled. For the past few weeks, she’s been going around the village with him to watch as he helps settle petty squabbles and get little jobs done. She still has too much trouble staying still to sit in council, but eventually, she will do that too. “Why wouldn’t we?”

“Well, the baby’s a boy, right? So he’ll be the chief.”

This hits Hiccup like a punch to the gut. He’d expected something like him being too busy. “Who told you that?”

“Spitlout. He says only boys can be chief.”

“Well, Spitlout’s full of sheep dung,” Hiccup says before he can stop himself.

Zephyr twists around to look up at him incredulously, looking for all the world like a little owl, and he realizes that may be the harshest thing she’s ever heard him say about someone. And it’s about a two-year-old.

He sighs, deciding he’ll have to speak to Snotlout about what he’s been teaching his son. “It doesn’t matter if the chief is a boy or a girl. They’re just the eldest child of the former chief if they suit the job.”

“But what if I don’t suit the job?” she asks.

He squeezes her against him. “Believe me, you do.”

She is quiet again, for so long that he’s starting to think she’s fallen asleep. Then she says, “Daddy?”

“Yes, Zephyr?”

“When the baby comes.” She pauses. “Are you and Mommy still going to love me as much as you do now?”

“Of course we will!” Hiccup exclaims. “Are you afraid we won’t?”

Zephyr shrugs her tiny shoulders. “I don’t know.”

He tries to think of what to say next. “The thing about love,” he finally says, “is that having more people to love doesn’t mean you love any of them less. Love grows the more you ask of it. We might have to spend more time with the baby, since babies take a lot of time, but it doesn’t mean we love you any less. Okay?”

“Okay,” she says. She’s starting to sound sleepy.

“I’ll tell you what,” he says. “How about, when the baby comes, you and I go camping once in a while? Just the two of us. Not too often, just every few weeks.” Hopefully, she’ll be open to the baby joining them, once he’s big enough. And it will help Hiccup see more of the island.

“I like that idea,” she says with a mighty yawn.

It’s time to get home, Hiccup decides. He sets his daughter on the sand and gets to his feet. With her help, he packs her little campsite back up, pocketing the stolen flint-steel, and slips the pack onto her shoulders. He hoists her onto his own shoulders, her little legs around his neck as she holds his thumbs to keep steady, and starts heading back into town. 

By the time they get there, she is slumped forward over his head, and he’s gently gripping her wrists to keep her from falling.

Valka’s window is open, and a light inside silhouettes her in the opening. “Hiccup?” she calls, her voice hardly louder than a whisper.

He lets go of one of Zephyr’s hands for just a moment to wave at her. “I got her, Mom,” he says just as softly.

“Thank the gods,” she says. She looks at them and smiles.

When they get back to the chief’s house, Hiccup goes first to Zephyr’s room and lays her down in her bed with a kiss on her forehead. Then he goes to her mother. When he pokes his head into their bedroom, she’s not there. He retraces his steps to the balcony where he was sitting when she came to tell him Zephyr had run off—and there she is, in his chair, her golden head bowed, her chin on her chest. The torch he’d been writing by has burned out. It’s a good thing this is the first really warm night of the year, he thinks.

Astrid’s head snaps up as soon as he gets within a yard of her, her piercing blue eyes boring into him. “Where’s Zephyr?” she asks urgently.

“Asleep in her bed,” Hiccup says. 

His wife springs to her feet, brushing past him into the house. It’s not that she doesn’t believe him, he knows. She just needs to see their daughter. He would too if their positions were reversed.

He gathers up his journal and follows Astrid inside, standing a few feet behind her as she looks in at Zephyr, staring at the little shape on the bed and listening to her breathe.

Finally, she eases the door shut and turns back to him.

“See? She’s fine,” says Hiccup.

Nodding, Astrid walks toward him and plows face-first into his chest. His arms go around her automatically, and he holds her close. She’s not crying—he doesn’t remember for sure the last time he saw her cry—but she needs the comfort, and he is happy to give it to her. 

“Where was she?” Astrid whispers without pulling away from him.

“The lake where I tried to help Toothless with the Light Fury. Have I ever taken you there?”

He feels her shake her head. “I don’t think so.”

“We’ll need to fix that,” he says. “What do you say to tomorrow night?”

Her head tilts back, and she smiles up at him. “Do you think your mom will take Zephyr for the night?”

He grins. “I’m sure she will.”

Astrid angles her head up, seeking a kiss, and Hiccup obliges her gladly.

They’ve been asleep for an hour or so when Hiccup wakes to the sound of their bedroom door creaking open. He half-sits and raises a questioning brow at his daughter, who is standing just inside the door. She’s changed into her little nightdress, and the pale fabric seems to glow in the dark.

“Can I sleep with you tonight?” she whispers. 

Hiccup jerks his head toward the bed. “Come on.”

She climbs onto the bed and crawls up between her parents, burrowing beneath the blanket. HIccup snuggles down next to her, shutting his eyes again, but his efforts to fall back asleep are foiled when she says, very softly, “Daddy?”

He sighs and opens his eyes. Her face is only inches from his. “Yes, Zephyr?”

“Did you mean it when you said we’d still go chiefing?”

“Yes, Zephyr, I did. Of course we will. Can you do me a favor, though?”

“What?”

“Stop listening to Spitlout.”

She giggles. “Okay, Daddy.” She snuggles into his chest. He shuts his eyes again, only to realize a minute or so later that she isn’t asleep when she giggles again.

“What is it, sweetie?”

She gets up on hands and knees and lowers her head until her lips brush his ear, then whispers with perfect clarity, “ _Shitlout._ ”

It takes every ounce of Hiccup’s self-control not to burst out laughing, not because what she’s said is all that funny, just from the surprise of it. As it is, he makes a strangled, choking noise and, once he’s collected himself, asks, “Where did you hear that word?”

She lies back down and shrugs. “Around.”

“I’d rather you didn’t use it,” he says. “Especially not making fun of someone like that. It isn’t nice.”

She gives a frustrated sigh, but she says, “Yes, Daddy.” She snuggles up to him again, and he winds his arm around her. She is quiet for another minute or so before she begins, “Daddy—”

“Daddy’s going to take you back to your room if you don’t let us sleep,” Astrid says. 

Zephyr starts against Hiccup’s chest. “Sorry, Mommy.” Hiccup isn't precisely sure when Astrid woke up, but it's possible she's been awake since Zephyr first opened the door.

Astrid chuckles. “It’s okay.” She turns over and throws an arm over both Zephyr and Hiccup, and Hiccup takes the opportunity to rub his hand across her side. “Goodnight, Zephyr.”

“Goodnight, Mommy,” Zephyr says. And then: “Goodnight, Daddy.”

“Goodnight, sweetie,” he says, kissing her forehead. 

Before long, they are all asleep, a tangle of limbs in the big bed Hiccup made, their hearts warm and full of love.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading! I'd love a comment if you feel like it.
> 
> Also, let me know - would it be helpful to organize my Hiccstrid/Haddock family fics set on New Berk into a series? There's definitely more coming.
> 
> Thanks again!


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